Install a Corrugated Metal Roof

Traditionally, corrugated metal roofing has been used mostly on commercial buildings, and certain farm and industrial buildings. While it has been used on homes for well over a century, it has not been the most popular roofing alternative for homeowners. Today, advances in corrugated metal roofing technology have made it a much more realistic solution for your roofing needs.

Metal roofing in general used to have a reputation for being particularly loud when it rains. Today’s metal roofing is hardly any louder, if any, than asphalt roofing. So in answer to the question of where corrugated metal roofing should be used around the home, it can be easily used just about anywhere. While it is true that it is exceptionally suited for new porches and overhangs, it is a very suitable material for roofing your entire house and garage as well.

How to Install Corrugated Metal Roof Material

Because of the size of the metal sheets and their lightweight, corrugated metal roofing is much easier to install than the customary shingles that are so common today. There are different shapes and styles of corrugated roofing panels. We will cover the basics for installing them, but you should check with the manufacturer for any instructions that are specific to the type of panel you choose. Here are the basic steps for installing corrugated metal roofing:

1. Find the coverage area of the individual sheets. For example a 38 inch wide panel will typically have a 36 inch coverage area. The coverage area is what the panel covers after you allow for normal overlapping of the panels.

2. Typically the panels are six feet long and 36 to 44 inches wide. First you want to measure the ridge of your roof in inches and divide that number by the coverage area of the panel to determine how many rows of metal panels you will need.

3. Then measure from the length of the roof’s slope in feet and divide it by six to determine how many columns you will have. Take the number of rows and multiply it by the number of columns and that is how many total panels you will need for that surface. Repeat for any other surfaces your roof may have. Be sure to allow for a couple of inches of overhang and for mistakes, Typically 10% for errors is good.

4. Find the circumference of the roof and add that number to the length of any ridges and divide that number by six feet to determine the number of ridge caps you will need.

5. To begin installing your corrugated metal roof, place your first panel at the bottom of your first slope near the lip of the roof and secure it in place with 3 inch metal roofing nails. Do not nail close to the edges until you overlap your next panel. The nails go into the humps of the ridges in the panel. All together, there should be about 20 nails per panel.

6. Overlap your second sheet along side of the first making sure to overlap to the first whole ridge. If the panels you are using have half ridges at the edge, do not count that one, but overlap the next one as well. Continue this until you have your entire first row covered.

7. While you are working in that section of the roof, you can place your ridge caps along the bottom edge of the panels. They should curve over the lip of the roof. Each six foot section should take about 40 nails to secure.

8. Now you are ready to start your second row of panels above the first. Check with the manufacturer for the type of panel you are using, because some recommend that they stagger the first row and some should not. If you have to stagger them, then you will need to rip the first panel in half long wise to cause your stagger as you continue. If you do not need to stagger the panels, simply place the second row above the first, overlapping the rows by two inches in both cases. Continue across and repeat this for each row until your entire roof is done.

9. Install ridge caps around the entire perimeter and along the top of the ridge and you are finished.